Koreans to get ultra-fast broadband – 1Gb/s by 2012

korea-broadband.jpg

In contrast to our Government’s pledge for 2Mb/s broadband for all by 2012, South Korea’s government is promising 1Gb/s! At present, they’ve got 100Mb/s pipes, and as a result their digital culture is more advanced that almost any other nation on the planet.

As well as a wired speed increase, their wireless broadband will be going up to 10Mbps, using Korea’s own WiBro standard. The whole plan will cost the country $24.6bn (£17bn) and generate 120,000 jobs. Now if they can do it, why can’t we?

(via GigaOM)

Related posts: Digital Britain | Samsung launches their high end Yepp YP-P3 in Korea

Samsung W7900 "Show" – a projectorphone with OLED display and digital TV tuner

w9700-projector-phone.jpg

If you’re a fan of media consumption on the move, then you’ve likely got some sort of big screen PMP like an Archos 7. If you’re not invested in a particular device yet, though, then you could do worse than consider the Samsung W7900, aka the Show, which comes packed with a 3.2″ 240×400 OLED display, 5-megapixel camera, 3G, HSDPA, and most notably, a 10 lumen 480 x 320 projector, that’ll project upto a 50″ diagonal.

It also has a digital TV tuner so you’ll be able to watch telly on a (dark) bus, and all that is crammed into a body just 4.4″ x 2.2″ x 0.7″ thick. Impressive! Although it’ll initially only be available in Asia, here’s hoping that it’ll make it over this side of the world at some point over the next year.

(via PopSci, who have a great hands-on video)

Related posts: Samsung stretches out its OLED display technology to a whole 40 inches | Samsung P3 media player

iRiver Wave – a mp3 player/phone hybrid device. It'll never catch on.

iriver-phone.jpg

In the lovely Korean girl’s hand above is the iRiver Wave. It’s a *gasp* phone made by an MP3 player manufacturer. The world is imploding. Silliness aside, it’s beautiful, has specs to die for, and the wonderful embedded £2-a-month, all-you-can-stream Bugs Music Service embedded. However, I’m forced to add the phrase that makes any Western techie weep – “Only available in Korea”. Full specs over the jump.